IT’S so close now, Harry Redknapp can almost hear the soprano shrieking the Champions League theme ­music into his shell-like.

Spurs enter the final week of the season in a top-four berth – needing four points from two matches to seal a ­momentous breakthrough into Europe’s elite competition.

Redknapp’s thoroughbred gee-gee, named Arry’s Orse, had to pull out of yesterday’s 2,000 Guineas because of a persistent cough – but there seems little chance of his football team choking down the home straight after a Tom Huddlestone ­thunderbolt earned three crucial points.

Premier League chiefs recently ­discussed a proposal to introduce play-offs for the final Champions League place – but while that suggestion was thrown out, Manchester City and Spurs will hold what amounts to a winner-takes-all shoot-out at Eastlands on Wednesday.

Spurs know a point at City and a win against doomed Burnley next Sunday will be enough – not that anybody with a Tottenham cockerel on their chest ever counts their chickens.

Scrutiny

Not when, the last time Spurs were in this position, a dodgy lasagne caused a mass bout of food poisoning and their ambitions disappeared around the U-bend at West Ham on the final day of the campaign.

Tottenham’s eating habits will be under scrutiny next weekend. If they’re after any recommendations, then the former England winger John Connelly – a member of the 1966 World Cup squad – apparently owns a fish and chip shop not far from Turf Moor.

But once Huddlestone’s cracking shot had nudged Spurs in front on 38 ­minutes, ’Arry’s boys rarely looked like coughing up the points.

Bolton boss Owen Coyle said: “It took a wonder goal from Huddlestone and a couple of wonder saves from Gomes to beat us. We are very ­disappointed not to come away with a point.”

Huddlestone is one of several ­promising youngsters and fringe players to have come to the fore in recent weeks, just when Redknapp needed them to.

Gareth Bale has proved a revelation down the left, Michael Dawson a stony-eyed sentry at the back and Roman Pavlyuchenko, the man who came in from the cold, has led the line with purpose.

But yesterday it was Huddlestone who seized ­centre-stage.

The corresponding fixture last season was Redknapp’s first in charge – when, just hours after quitting Portsmouth, and with Spurs having taken just two points from eight matches, he lifted a ragged team off the floor.

What a difference 18 months make. Victories over Arsenal and Chelsea in their previous two home matches had put Spurs in the box seat for that crucial fourth spot.

But this was just the sort of seemingly straightforward fixture which has tripped up so many Spurs sides in the past – ­indeed, this season, squandered home points against Stoke, Hull and Wolves could still prove costly.

Pavlyuchenko scuffed a decent early chance but White Hart Lane was hushed by nerves until news of Aston Villa’s opener at Eastlands lit the fuse.

Bolton’s Gretar Steinsson whistled a shot just wide before Tottenham’s ­golden boy Bale thundered down the left, leaving three defenders in his wake before drilling in a shot that Jussi Jaaskelainen pushed away.

Seven minutes before the break, Huddlestone relieved the tension with a sledgehammer blow. A corner was played short, Benoit Assou-Ekotto rolled a pass across to the giant ­midfielder, who teed himself up and found the top corner with a 20-yard shot of great power and unerring accuracy.

Huddlestone was not too far off target with a repeat effort early in the second half but Gomes had to be alert to beat away a Taylor effort.

Cleared

Tottenham then spurned a flurry of chances to secure the points – Jermain Defoe fired a long-ranger which was narrowly off-target, Pavlyuchenko ­headed wide and Jaaskelainen turned a Bale shot around a post.

Bolton continued to threaten, though, Younes Kaboul blocking a Taylor shot – and when Redknapp replaced Defoe with Peter Crouch, there were isolated boos around the Lane. They are not easily pleased, this lot.

Crouch, whose first-team ­appearances have been worryingly infrequent from an England point of view, had a header cleared off the line by Chung-Yong Lee and a shot saved by Jaaskelainen.

There was one great heart-in-the-mouth moment, three minutes from time when Taylor chested down and thumped in a half-volley, which Gomes saved brilliantly.

Eidur Gudjohnsen was guilty of a ­bizarre late miss but Spurs went on a lap of honour to mark their final home match, knowing their season will be defined by the next seven days.